The Starfish and the Seahorse
by Chibi Angelic Slayer
Summary: There's a new student at Ace AllBoy's Academy, and he's causing quite a stir. Friendships and steamy rivalries are formed, as Seto tries to unravel the mysteries of his past... and his relationships in the present...even. YxS, BxS fluff
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh, there wouldn't be any of this GX crap...

Hey, all. I began this new story w while ago and I like it so far, so I'm posting it here. n.n I'll be adding to _Silent Secrets_ soon, just bear with me and my having to share a laptop with three siblings. -.-; I'm not gonna talk too much now. This is an AU story, so keep that in mind. I'm gonna try to stay as true to the characters as I can, but since it is AU, there is room, for a little OOCness... right? I'll try to answer your questions as best as possible in the story, and if I can't yet, well... I'll see what I can do.

**WARNING: **YAOI (people should know what it is by now. - -), scenes of sexual harassment (not extreme!), scenes of violence/abuse, and... oh, yeah. Swearing. n.n

_-The Starfish and the Seahorse-_

"There once was an underwater kingdom, ruled by one of the most regal sea creatures of all: the Starfish. With his large, long pointed arms and just attitude towards all creatures, all the inhabitants of this kingdom respected an admired the starfish. For a long time, the starfish ruled his kingdom in peace; and he liked it that way. Everything was organized; nothing out of place, for the starfish loved perfection more than anything, along with his control over it and his citizens. But all this came to an abrupt halt one day, when a lone stranger came into the kingdom; a creature no one in the kingdom had ever seen before. The new creature was graceful, with a long slender body and a tail that curled forward, small, fluttering, transparent wing, and a long, straight face held high; the stranger was called the seahorse. His appearance in the kingdom threw everything out of balance, for the people didn't know what to think of him; strange, frightening, beautiful, everybody had a different opinion. The starfish learned of the seahorse's appearance and was furious at his citizens' discontent. And do you know what he did, Seto?"

A boy of about six or seven bounced eagerly on the bed next to a woman with long black hair, his own mahogany hair flopping around his astonishing blue eyes. They sat alone in a small, cluttered room completely in the dark on top of a bed with checker print covers on it. The only light in the moon came from the bright new moon outside the small, misted window.

"What happened...?" he breathed, leaning closer to his mother.

"Well..." she whispered, glancing dramatically about the clearly empty room. She inwardly smiled as the boy's eyes got bigger than saucers. "You'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out." she replied, his smile forcing it's way through in the form of a smug, but kind smirk.

"Awe! _Moom_!" groaned the boy, draping his thin pajama-ed frame over the ebony-haired woman's shoulders.

The woman had a rich, beautiful laugh, which she demonstrated at this point.

"Sorry, my love, but it's late now, and we have to sleep, at least a little," she said, putting a finger to her lips and winking.

In response, to this, the brunette boy huffed but plopped resolutely back into the bed.

"Fine," he sighed, looking glum. When his mother noticed this, her grin vanished, promptly replaced by a look of determination.

"Alright then..." she said, slipping closer to the small child. "I guess I'll have to... ATTACK!" and with that last word, she dove at the poor, unsuspecting little boy, reducing him to a writhing, giggling mass in a matter of moments with her tickle attack.

"Will you wait, patiently and happily till tomorrow?" she grunted between her own giggles.

"Y-Yes!" squeaked the boy, stopping the tirade abruptly and flopping, panting, on the bed. They both sat, breathing hard in the darkness.

Finally, the boy sat up and hugged his mother.

"Tomorrow, you'll tell me what the mean starfish did, right?" he asked, his cobalt eyes meeting her own, matching ones.

She laughed in response. "Of course, Seto..." She then slid off the bed and tucked her son in.

"Goodnight, mommy," said the brunette boy, smiling.

"Goodnight, Seto..." his mother smiled back, and leaned down to brush his russet bangs back and kiss him on the forehead. She stood straight and walked to the door. Briefly looking back at her son, she saw his eyes were already shut.

"Goodnight..." she repeated, more to herself than the boy, her smile gone as she shut the door.

Seto never found out what the starfish did about the seahorse...

His mother was dead the next day.

-&-

A tall, seventeen-year-old brunette boy leaned back in the stiff-backed chair, right hand loosely gripping a black pen on top of a dark wooden desk. He sighed into the empty, almost bare, pale green room. The only other furniture in the room was another desk, that with vacant computer on it.

Why was he thinking about that old story now...? It had been a little more than ten years ago, but Seto had never forgotten that story...

He shook his head softly and leaned back over the completed entrance exam. He had been given almost a whole extra hour longer than he needed to complete the exam to get into his new school. Seto tossed the pen down and stretched his arms above his head.

_Stepfather must think I really am stupid... _he thought, standing up and going over to the only window in the room. Seto leaned on the window sill and stared at the bustling campus below. Why he had to go to this homo-ridden school of idiots, he did not know.

Ace All-Boys Academy was the school Seto was transferring to tomorrow. Supposedly, it was one of Japan's most top-ranking high schools, but from what Seto had heard, all the students were at the whim of a single third-year idiot and his brigand of ass-kissing _friends_. _Hopefully_, Seto had the luck to avoid as much stupidity as he could till graduation, but for some reason, Seto knew something would go wrong. Seto hadn't had the best of luck for a while...

Suddenly, Seto again remembered the story his mother had begun to tell him a decade ago...

Pressing his forehead against the warm glass, cerulean eyes staring back at him, a shadow of his mother's grin passed over Seto's smooth features at the irony of the situation. Seto had been adopted after his mother's death, and he had discarded his old last name unwillingly for another...

'Kaiba...'

"The Seahorse."

-&-

Ooh, irony.

Argh. I think I got a toothache writing that first part... But then I felt bad at the end of it... TT . TT I'm sorrrrrrrrry! I'll try to pry my foolish siblings off the computer long enough to update soon... and NO, that is NOT a convenient excuse for being too lazy to put my story in the computer with my stupid 16 GWAM!

_Ja ne!_

_**Review **if you want to try some of this energy!_

... Sorry, I watched _Sailor Moon R_ the other day...


	2. Testing the Waters

Disclaimer is on the first page.

Hey again. I'm typing this without checking my e-mail, so I don't know who reviewed, haha. If you did, thanks, and I'll get to you soon. This is really the first chapter, the previous was really just the prologue. Hoo hoo. Anyways, there will be quite a bit of Bakura and Seto fluff before there is the Yami and Seto stuff. Sorry. n.n; But it's only friendly, Bakura already has... somebody. _shifty eyes_

Let's get to it!

-&-

_God, I hate this process..._

Seto stood at the head of classroom F-1, the teacher behind him scrawling his name in chalk on the blackboard. All eyes were on him, and Seto could feel it. He gazed indifferently at the ceiling above their heads, hands in pockets of his new uniform. It was the most uncomfortable piece of crap Seto had ever worn, and was like the typical uniform. This one was black and had a golden badge on each side of his collar; on the right side, the cursive English 'A', and on the other, the Roman numeral 'III', displaying his class.

Seto didn't know why, for the love of all that was good in the world, they made transferring students do this. If they wanted themselves to be known to the school, then they were very capable of doing it themselves; there was really no need to parade them around the front of the school like long sought-after criminals.

The teacher, Sakatachi Minase, finished writing his name on the chalkboard and turned around, dusting his broad hands off.

He smiled and patted Seto genially on the shoulder, earning no response from the brunette.

"This is your new classmate, transferring in from the upper Tokyo region, Kaiba, Seto. Make him feel welcome here." Minase said, looking at his class. There was a murmur of a strange sort and Seto cast his eyes toward the windows impatiently.

"Now, Kaiba-kun," began Minase, "why don't you sit-"

But before he could tell Seto where to sit, Seto was moving away from him and towards a vacant desk closest to the window in the corner.

Up till now, there had been muttering going on in the classroom, the subject of which was obvious, but the room had suddenly become silent. All the eyes in the classroom were focused on either Seto or Minase. Many people in the classroom had their mouths open, stunned. Minase was one of the most frightening teachers in the school when he was disrespected, and this new kid had done just that, and rather blatantly.

Everyone, including Minase, seemed stunned, with the exception of the boy sitting next to Seto, whose hair was a snowy color and eyes bore a resemblance to thick honey, which were now looking interestedly over at Seto.

There was an awkward silence in which Seto took a book out of his mandatory bag, and began reading.

Minase seemed to snap out of whatever stupor he was in and cleared his throat. When Seto made no inclination to pay attention, Minase's face seemed to stiffen; he was clearly not used to this kind of insubordination.

"... Kaiba-kun," Minase said, his voice as stiff as his features.

"Hmn..." was Seto's only response, not even bothering to look up from his book. He turned a page.

A twitch of the eyebrow. Many of the students shifted uncomfortably.

"... This... is your first day here, Kaiba-kun..."

"Mmn-hm."

_Twitch, twitch._

Minase inhaled deeply. "And as such, I will let you off this once. But let me inform you that I am not used to being answered so..." he paused, looking for the right word.

"Impolitely? Yes, sensei, I understand," Seto said, shutting his book and smiling up at the teacher, "but I think we should get started on today's lesson before we waste any more time on personal preferations. We only have so long in this class, as you well know." he said, lacing his fingers patiently on the desk and looking expectantly up at Minase.

-&-

Seto smiled to himself as he exited first period amidst a crowd of his gawking classmates forty-five minutes later, his leather bag slung over his shoulder.

Maybe he was going to like this school; at his old school, he'd never have been able to pull some shit like that without being reported and getting detention, or...

Seto grimaced and grabbed the hidden bruises on his arms...

"Hey, you!"

Seto sighed. _I knew my luck wouldn't last... _he thought silently, before turning to look at back at the now empty classroom; empty except for the white-haired teenager who had been sitting next to him in class. He had the exact same uniform as Seto, the Roman numeral 'III' and everything, except his jacket was open and the white collared shirt he was wearing underneath was un-tucked.

"I just arrived today. Surely your memory cannot be so bad that you can at least remember my name isn't 'you'..." Seto muttered as the other teen approached.

The white-haired young man laughed, stopping inches from Seto. "It's exactly that kind of attitude that makes you attractive Seto-kun..."

At the sound of his name being said in such a manner, Seto edged back cautiously.

"Don't worry," smirked the other teenager, "There are enough of those homos running around this school without me." he said, but the tone of his voice was questionable. Seto gave him a speculative glance.

"My name's Bakura," said, the white-haired teen.

"... Kaiba," replied Seto, still looking uneasily at the other boy.

"Alright then, Seto-chan," grinned Bakura.

Seto turned a brilliant shade and began to sputter out a rebuttal, but his words only succeeded in jumbling themselves. No one had ever addressed him so familiarly when they'd just met, or ever for that matter, except for his own deceased mother.

Bakura looked at his watch and then out at the hallway.

"Well shit. I'm going to be late. Again." he said, but the grin on his face betrayed how much he really cared.

"What class do you have next?" Bakura asked, leaning on the wall.

Seto, still glaring at Bakura for his too-familiar greeting, pulled a folded sheet of paper from his breast pocket and looked at it.

"Calculus..." he said, figuring this idiot couldn't possibly-

"Hey, me too!" Bakura grinned as the hallway began thinning out, save for the last few stragglers running around, frantically trying to make their next classes on time.

_I can't believe my luck..._ Seto sighed as he followed the humming Bakura down the hallways. It was bleary and gray outside, with large, sagging clouds threatening rain. The grounds were tinged with shadows and a light wind blew the leaves to the ground. Why he had been signed up for boarding school in the middle of fall was unfathomable to Seto, but... at least it meant he got to get away for a little while...

Seto was snapped from his thoughts by the bell.

Bakura laughed. "No one's gonna have a very good first impression of you, Seto."

Seto was beginning to get annoyed with the newcomer, but as Bakura laughed, Seto noticed that a small part of him was also grateful not to be alone anymore...

And Seto smiled as well.

-&-

"A new kid, huh...?"

"Yeah," said a dirty blonde third year who had been in said new boy's homeroom class. He was extremely taken aback and mildly indignant at the teen's outward displays of disrespect. It was usually he or one of the others in the group that did that. Not to mention that the new guy had gotten away with it.

On that dreary afternoon, Yami Umeta had indulged in one of his self-assigned sick days. He, and the blonde Jonouchi, Katsuya, sat on the roof of the boarding school. Yami had wild, tri-colored hair (that certainly would have been out of dress-code if hea had not the connections that he did) and blood red pools for eyes.

School would be out for the day in a couple of periods, and small spots of rain began dotting the roof.

Yami looked up.

"What's this kid like...?" he asked, only mildly interested. He was obviously not as concerned as his friend about a single new troublemaker.

"Well..." the blonde sighed, sensing his friend's inattentiveness. "... er... you'd have to see him. But listen, Yami! Everyone's, like, flippin' out about 'im! He's a weird guy! Not typical boarding school material at all..."

The crimson-eyed boy grinned: this was an ironic statement coming from Jonouchi. He then sighed, deciding to humor the blonde. "Alright, Jou, if you think it's important enough to skip third and fourth to tell me, then I'll have Otogi and Aoki look into it. Where are they, anyway?" Yami asked, leaning on the fencing of the roof and looking at the huge clock on the central building; it was almost lunch-time.

"Some of us has to stay in class," Jou shrugged.

"Honda's still in class, too? What about Ran, Shinkai and Kazuki?" Yami laughed. "They're all being strangely well-behaved lately. Anyway, have them check it out at lunch."

Then, as if one Yami's cue, the luch bell rang; Jou was always amazed at how Yami did that...

"Fine then," he said after recovering himself, "I'll ask- heythereheis!" he screamed abruptly, pressing his face against the wire.

"What?" Yami asked, cocking an eyebrow, having hardly understood the blonde. He looked down at the campus over his shoulder.

"There, next to that idiot, Bakura," Jonouchi said, a note of uncharacteristic malice in his voice. Then, Yami saw him; separated from the throng of hungry boys were two others, one with white hair, the other with dark mahogany hair. Even from where he was, Yami could see the brunette's features: pearly, alabaster skin, smooth, graceful features, and most prominently, two endlessly blue eyes.

Yami subconsciously turned and pressed against the fence to get a better look.

The brunette below began laughing.

"That's him...?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah..." Jou replied, sneering, "a little too pretty if you ask me..."

"... On second thought, Jou, I'll look into this one..."

"Huh!" exclaimed Jou, looking at his friend, and was shocked to see a grin on his face: the grin he got when he was about to take on a particularly difficult challenge...

"This should be interesting..." Yami said, more to himself than to Jou.

-&-

At that moment, below, Bakura looked at Seto.

"That's the first time I've seen you smile genuinely..." he said, looking satisfied. Seto blinked, apparently in realization, because his smile had vanished.

"Awe, there it goes," said Bakura in mock-sadness. "Ah well; at least I know it's not impossible now." he said, his own grin returning.

Seto scowled over at Bakura, "Shut up..." he said quietly.

"So," Bakura yawned, stretching his arms high into the air, "Whaddyou wanna eat? I can swipe something from the lunchroom or we can take my car and illegally out of school boundaries to pick something up. Take your pick." he said brightly.

"You're such a delinquent..." sighed Seto, pocketing his hands. "Then..." he said, shutting his eyes as they walked, "I don't much feel like sticking around here seeing as how everyone keeps staring at me like I'm a _bad piece of lunch meat_!" he snapped unexpectedly at a group of first year boys who had been muttering and gazing at him. They jumped about a foot in the air and looked away, hurrying faster towards their destination. Bakura burst into laughter.

"Ah Seto, you're a riot to be around!" he laughed, but the brunette glared sulkily at the ground.

"I don't see what the big deal is..." he muttered quietly. Bakura opened his mouth, but the drizzle that was coming down became more prominent, and the students still outside began rushing into the school again, but Bakura and Seto kept at a steady pace.

"To the car then?" Bakura asked optimistically.

"Yes. Anywhere but here..." Seto sighed, shaking his now damp hair out of his face.

"Okay... Burger World, it is!" Bakura proclaimed.

"Uuughhh..."

"Hello there, Kaiba-kun..."

Seto turned to his caller, mildly surprised; he'd been getting looks all day, but no one other than Bakura had tried to talk with him. Behind him, a young man similarly dressed to Bakura, stood, looking Seto up and down. Six or seven other boys stood behind the wild-haired teen, most of whom were in at least one of Seto's classes.

A growing number of rushing students had stopped to see what was going on and were watching them.

Seto gave the crimson-eyed young man a harsh glare in reply. "Sorry, have we met...?" he asked, a little curtly.

"Not yet," smiled the boy with tri-colored hair, apparently unfazed by Seto's impoliteness. "Haven't had the pleasure... I've heard about the grief you've been giving the teachers your first day here, though..."

Bakura stepped forward, all the previous idiocy Seto had seen in his face gone, replaced by a look of sardonic humor.

"Lemmee guess, Yamikins... You want him to stop bothering the teaches so you can be back in the spotlight? Leave him alone..."

Seto looked at Bakura, trying to let his surprise show too much; he'd never had anyone stand up for him before, and Bakura was hardly an acquaintance yet... But his surprise at the audacity of these guys far out-sourced Bakura's protection by far. These guys were so arrogant, and their appearance was causing such a scene that they could only be...

Seto looked back at the group. The boys behind their obvious leader shifted and glared at Bakura.

"That's big talk from someone who wouldn't even come near one of us before..." said a third-year with emerald green eyes and long black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail.

"Ha! Why would I want to, for one? And then, that's a pretty hypocritical thing to say... You kids need _queenie_ over here before you can even take a shit," grinned the white-haired boy.

"You little-!" began a tall dirty blonde boy next to the leader, but the crimson-eyed boy cut in.

"That's enough," he said. The whole time, he had never taken his eyes off Seto. "We're just here for introductions... and we want to make Kaiba-kun feel at home, don't we...?" he smiled.

Seto looked back uneasily, but didn't back off; if this guy thought he could intimidate Seto like this, he was wrong.

"Well, you obviously already know who I am... who are you?" Seto said over the rain.

This was the only comment Seto had seen remotely faze the other boy even slightly.

Yami blinked, but his smile returned, although somewhat icier than before. "Umeta, to you and your friend..." he gave Seto a disconcerting grin. "Have a good lunch..." he said, turning and walking off, the others giving Bakura and Seto different looks as they followed, none of them friendly.

Seto stared after them silently, and the rain's intensity increased as the gang disappeared into the school building, the flow back inside starting up again. The group that had been watching scattered, looking, if at all possible, even more curiously than before.

-&--&--&--&--&--&--&--&--&--&--&--&--&--&--&--&--&-

Hahoo, that's funny... ... _cough_ Anyway, was that chapter too long? I don't normally type long chapters because I type really slowly and my fingers feel like falling off before I'm done with them, but I couldn't sleep today (it's 2:35 a.m.!), and I just felt like getting something done. n n;; On a side note, depending on how old you are, you may or may not know how to draw on the computer, or maybe age has nothing to do with it, but that's besides the point. The _point _is, could someone real quick tell me how that works? How do you draw stuff like those really good pieces on DA with a mouse!

That's my question to you! ... Sorry, back to the story.

I think it's weird that Jou's first name is Katsuya. Not _weird_, weird, but nobody ever calls him that, not in any of the stories or anything; even when he's with a lover. Anyone else notice that…? Just me…? Okay…

I hope I used the honorifics right. When you're talking to someone younger, it's -kun? Or -san? I hope I didn't screw up!

Umm... I think that's it for now. Please ask any questions you may have! I'll do my best to answer!

_Ja ne!_

I have no snappy statements to tell you to review this time... Review! XP


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